Thursday, May 26th, 2022 Posted by Jim Thacker

Sebastian Schäfer releases Storm 0.6


Sebastian Schäfer has released Storm 0.6, the latest version of the standalone multiphysics simulation software, adding the option to simulate cloth as well as particulate fluids, liquids, smoke and fire.

The software, previously available via Effective TDs, has now moved to its own website and Gumroad store.

A fast, reasonably priced multiphysics solver, compatible with most DCC tools
First released in 2018, Storm is a standalone particle-based simulation tool used on Game of Thrones and X-Men: Dark Phoenix.

The software is capable of recreating a range of real-world materials: initially granular fluids like sand and snow, but more recently, liquids and gaesous fluids like smoke and fire.

It is highly multithreaded, and capable of displaying “millions of particles in real time”, with the Windows edition also supporting GPU acceleration via Nvidia’s CUDA API.

Users can export meshed simulations or particles to other DCC applications in a range of standard file formats, including OBJ, Alembic ABC caches, VDB, Krakatoa’s PRT format and RealFlow’s BIN format.

New toolset for simulating cloth, rope, hair and inflatables
To that, Storm 0.6 adds a new cloth node, making it possible to simulate cloth and soft bodies.

We can’t find a detailed changelog on the new product website, but the demo video shows a range of simulation types, including fabric, ropes and hair, with support for inflating and tearing cloth.

According to this Instagram post, users can “define … custom constraints for interesting effects”.

Updated: We’ve just been sent the full changelog from Gumroad, which we’ve added at the foot of this story. Thanks to Storm user Hans Christian Fürstenheim for supplying it.

Now available via the new product website rather than the now-defunct Effective TDs
The update is the first to be available via Storm’s new Gumroad store rather than the Effective TDs website.

According to a note on the old site, Effective TDs is “halting all sales indefinitely”, including for the other products it distributed, like 3ds Max plugins Demolition Master and TP Debugger.

Documentation for Storm has moved to the new product website, and support to a new Discord server.

Pricing and availability
Storm 0.6 is currently available for Windows and macOS: the old Linux edition is not listed on Gumroad.

A node-locked Indie licence, available to artists and studios with income under $90,000/year, costs €109 (around $117); a node-locked Studio licence costs €249 (around $267).

Read more about Storm on the product website


Storm 0.6: complete changelog

– adding cloth-solver, cloth-constraints and cloth-guide nodes
– cloth solver allows for stable cloth mesh and lines tearing
– cloth constraints can get created by groups and/or merged together
– adding also visualize-constraint node (cloth only)
– constraints can have varying “stiffness” and “breakStretch” values (pre-existing as point attributes)
– cloth inflation force is now triangle area dependent on default
– alembic importers and exporters can handle lines (curves) as well
– better weighting added to attribute-transfer node (proximity mode)
– attribset-node has an added falloff parameter
– point-delete node can also work on meshes now
– attrib-set node can also directly use a mesh as a “mask” and has a falloff parameter
– volume gradient node has an option to normalize and choose output name
– fixing clone-node (dynamics)
– adding Mesh-Curvature node
– smoke-solver node has an option for linear vorticity
– transform-stick can get enabled on a specific frame (classic collider)
– copy node fix
– alembic timing fix
– write node has the option to remove data attribs
– Storm additionally supports online licenses now
– “Transform Stick” also works for Collide-Classic node
– bugfixes